After being locked up in the village for several months, I woke up every morning not knowing how I was going to get through the day. Even Uncle Zhou’s big yellow dog wouldn’t play with me. So when I heard the quarrel, I didn't even think about why there was a quarrel at the funeral. Instead, I thought that there was finally something fun to watch.
This is a bit morbid, I must admit, but I can’t help it. After a person suddenly changes his life, he will inevitably be very uncomfortable. This discomfort will cause me to start crazily missing my past life, and even some of my past life. The bad habits that I knew were shortcomings broke out mercilessly at this moment.
When I approached the mourning hall, I found that most people were gathered around to watch the fun, and only a few people were trying to break up the fight. Uncle Zhou was one of the people watching the fun, and the two parties involved in the quarrel were Old Man Wang's third daughter and eldest son.
There is a Chinese saying that a family scandal should not be publicized. So the quarrels and fights at home are mostly done behind closed doors. But the quarrel in front of so many outsiders and the words were extremely unpleasant, and it was also at his father's funeral, it was very inappropriate no matter what. So I pulled Uncle Zhou's sleeve and asked him what happened.
Uncle Zhou said that the eldest son accused the third child of not paying attention to the family since she got married. She didn't often go home to see her even though they were so close. Now that her father died, she suddenly appeared and acted like a The appearance of his own filial child. The eldest child went over and over again and picked out one point. The third child felt that as a daughter, she would naturally put her husband's family first after she got married. After she arrived in the city, she worked in a factory with the help of her husband's family and earned all the money. I often send mail home, but I am too busy with work and have to take care of my husband and children, so I really don’t have much time to come back and take care of my old father.
I whispered to Uncle Zhou, what these two people said was quite reasonable. The eldest and the second were sons. Did they both stay in the village? Uncle Zhou said yes, this old Wang had married two women in his life, and the eldest was the child he had with his first wife, and he was much older. The eldest son’s mother died when he was about ten years old, so Lao Wang married a widow from a neighboring village. The widow had no children when she got married. She also became pregnant with the second son the next year. The eldest son and second daughter were twelve years apart. The second and third oldest children are three years apart.
Uncle Zhou said that our village is small and poor. If a man does not study or join the army, it will be difficult for him to get out of the village, let alone have much future. So when the eldest brother came of age, he married a wife and had children, and built a new house next to his father's old house, just to take care of his father nearby without going far. When he became an adult, he also married a girl from the village, but he did not live with his father. Instead, he built a new house on the foundation of his wife's old house on Beishan Mountain, but it was not far away, and he often came to visit his father. , but this third child, because she is a daughter, Lao Wang and his two brothers have been particularly fond of her since she was a child. Neither of his sons has gone to school, but this daughter has been sent to school instead.
Uncle Zhou said that people in the village were talking about him at that time. In the countryside, daughters are raised by others. Why should you let her go to school? If she can cook and wash, know money and settle accounts, wouldn't that be enough? But Lao Wang didn't listen and insisted on sending the third child to study. The third child is also upbeat and smart. He was admitted to a girls' middle school in the city and has been studying in the city since he was in middle school. Life in the city is different from our country life. You have to spend money everywhere there. Before liberation, these boys and girls started to engage in some progressive activities. For this reason, Lao Wang was very worried about his daughter suffering a loss, so he persuaded her to let him go. The daughter returned to the country and stayed for two years.
I glanced at the eldest and the third child who were quarreling. Although there was a second child in the middle who was trying to break up the fight, the fight was still quite heated. The eldest brother, who was about fifty years old, was obviously at a disadvantage, while the third child was getting more and more noisy. So I asked Uncle Zhou, didn't you say that the brother and sister have a very good relationship? When I look at it like this, it doesn’t look very good. Uncle Zhou said, what do you know? After liberation, the third child proposed to go back to continue his studies and finish high school before returning home. By that time, Lao Wang was already quite old and basically could not do heavier farm work. Fortunately, the eldest son was still waiting nearby, so he helped his father farm the land to earn money. Part of the money he earned was given to his younger sister as tuition. So in this matter, the boss still understands the importance of culture.
I said, according to what you said, the boss loves his sister very much. Did the relationship deteriorate later? You see, the quarrel now is like class enemies. Uncle Zhou said, didn’t something go wrong later? After the third child went to the city to study, he didn't come back for many years. When people in the village asked Lao Wang, he couldn't explain clearly. It wasn't until the elder brother got drunk at home one day that he revealed the matter. , saying that my sister has no conscience. It’s not like her family is opposed to her going to live in the city, but she often comes home to visit her. Isn’t it so difficult to go back home even though we are hundreds of miles apart? Moreover, after my sister finished school, she fell in love with an intellectual from the city. She actually got married and had children without telling the family. If she hadn't come home with her children one year, no one in her family would have known that she had already started a family. .
I said, then this is what the third child did wrong. You said that even if it is inconvenient to come back often, she is a person who has gone to school, so she can just spend some time writing a letter to the family. This marriage is a happy event, why should she hide it? family? Uncle Zhou squinted his eyes and frowned and said to me, "Son, you are still young. You may not understand some things. Once a person leads a good life, how can he remember his parents and family? You are right, marriage is a happy event." , but if you let your husband’s family know that your mother’s family was born into poor peasants for the eighth generation, can this still be considered a happy event?
I stopped talking. In those days, even though most people were poor, they still wanted to be well-matched. Uncle Zhou went on to say that this old and arrogant person was none other than his sister who felt that her mother-in-law was so embarrassed that she didn't even notify her of her marriage. I nodded, that made sense. Then what kind of fuss was going on today? I think this third child is not too young. It must have been many years since that incident. Why are you in this mourning hall again today? Have you brought up old matters again? Uncle Zhou shook his head and said, that's not true. Everyone was deliberately not mentioning this matter. As long as no one lit the fire, it would be a blur. But this time the third child came back for the funeral and took his own child with him. It is said that even though this child is ten years old, it is the first time he has returned to his mother's family and seen his two children for the first time. An uncle, and a grandfather who has never seen a living person.
Uncle Zhou went on to say that the eldest brother already had objections to the third child's actions. Although the second child also had objections, he was born to the same parents after all. It was not easy to be a good person when he was caught in the middle, so he could not speak up. But today, the third child was at his naughty age. While wandering around the mourning hall, he knocked over the wreath that the elder had put up. He accidentally fell to the edge of the brazier and burned it all up.
I turned around and looked inside the mourning hall. Next to the iron basin that I had used to burn paper money, there was a pile of burnt ashes and two bamboo poles in the middle. It seemed that I had missed the trip to send Aunt Xu home. A lot of fun. Uncle Zhou told me that in our place, wreaths are only burned at the tomb of the deceased after the deceased has been buried and sealed. Less than a day after his death, the wreath of his eldest son was burned by others. This is very unusual. An unlucky thing.
I asked Uncle Zhou why it was unlucky. Is this the rule here? Uncle Zhou said yes, every place has its own rules. Although they are similar, in our village, it is like cursing others to follow them to death. Do you think this boss can not be angry? So I scolded the child, and then the third child stopped. No, it just started making trouble.
In my opinion, it is actually not a big deal. Customs are customs. What is good or bad is a matter for living people to decide. So the boss and the third child just had a grudge against each other, and the boss found an excuse to use it as an excuse. Uncle Zhou sighed and said, these people who have settled in the city are different from us country people. If someone dies here, whoever doesn’t lively and lively for three days and two nights will be an unknown person during his lifetime. This is the last stop in life. Whatever you say, it should be done gracefully. But this old man, the third child, refused to let the master do the dojo, saying that it was feudal superstition and ignorance. No, you see, the old man Wang was very popular when he was alive. Now that he is dead, he is even more deserted.
I snorted and said, she said in one or two sentences that this is feudal superstition, she knows a thing or two. According to what Uncle Zhou said, the third child should have arrived in the village before Old Man Wang died and was helping to prepare for the funeral. Otherwise, if she had only arrived today, she would not have been able to stop the old man and the second child from asking Taoist priests to perform rituals. of.
The eldest brother is yelling, the second child is pulling, the third child is chattering, the children are crying and making trouble, and most of the people around are watching. This is actually reality. Maybe I bumped into it just once today, and I can't see it. Or don’t you know that similar things happen every day?
According to what Master taught me, after a person dies, it is not necessary to perform religious rituals. Having the support of ritual rituals only allows the deceased soul to go away with more peace of mind. Many people whose families are poor do not necessarily have to perform religious rituals, and their families will not encounter disturbing events such as hauntings. Just because of my professional habits, I can almost tell that at this moment, in a corner that we cannot see with the naked eye, the new dead soul of Old Man Wang must be watching his children and grandchildren acting like this in front of his soul.
If this continues, Old Man Wang will not feel at ease. I thought to myself.
